1.5 million Iranians ordered to evacuate due to "pollution" (read: nuclear leak)

Iranian officials have instructed residents of Isfahan to leave the city, renewing concerns that a nearby nuclear site could be leaking radioactive material.

An edict issued Wednesday by Iranian authorities orders Isfahan’s one-and-a-half million people to leave the city “because pollution has now reached emergency levels,” the BBC reported.

However, outside observers suspect that the evacuation order may corroborate previous reports indicating that a uranium enrichment facility near Isfahan had been leaking radioactive material.

snip

November reports indicated that a radioactive leak might have poisoned several workers at the nuclear plant, which converts highly toxic yellowcake uranium into material that could be used in the core of a nuclear weapon.

6. uh, no, unfortunately

The amount of coverage from the media on fukushima was an embarrassment.

I do believe that Chernobyl originally wan't reported and leaked for awhile, until it did finally get large enough to measure from the outside with the right winds. I vaguely recall that from the documentary I watched, but am not completely sure about that.

20. You are correct - as is typical with nuclear accidents, they tried to pretend nothing happened

The initial evidence that a major release of radioactive material was affecting other countries came not from Soviet sources, but from Sweden, where on the morning of 28 April workers at the Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant (approximately 1,100 km (680 mi) from the Chernobyl site) were found to have radioactive particles on their clothes.

It was Sweden's search for the source of radioactivity, after they had determined there was no leak at the Swedish plant, that at noon on 28 April led to the first hint of a serious nuclear problem in the western Soviet Union. Hence the evacuation of Pripyat on 27 April 36 hours after the initial explosions, was silently completed before the disaster became known outside the Soviet Union. The rise in radiation levels had at that time already been measured in Finland, but a civil service strike delayed the response and publication.

26. A month later, a German pebble bed reactor leaked, they tried to pretend it was from Chernobyl

In spite of the limited amount of radioactivity released (0.1 GBq 60Co, 137Cs, 233Pa), the THTR management tried to hide the accident, possibly because this accident pointed to some specific problems with pebble bed reactors, mostly pebble flow and radioactive dust. The management might have thought that the emission would not be detectable due to the Chernobyl fallout happening at the same time. They continued to blame the Chernobyl fallout for all of the contamination found in the surroundings, until the presence of Pa-233 in the vicinity was detected. 233Pa is not formed in uranium reactors, such as Chernobyl, but only in thorium reactors (and also by natural spontaneous fissions with thorium nearby). Thus, step by step, the THTR management report lost all credibility. The radioactivity in the vicinity of the THTR-300 was finally found to result 25% from Chernobyl and 75% from THTR-300. The handling of this minor accident severely damaged the credibility of the German pebble bed community, and pebble bed reactors lost a lot of support in Germany.

27. Nov 2011: Mystery Radiation Detected 'Across Europe'

The hunt is on for the source of low level radiation detected in the atmosphere "across Europe" over the past weeks, nuclear officials said today.

Trace amounts of iodine-131, a type of radiation created during the operation of nuclear reactors or in the detonation of a nuclear weapon, were detected as early as three weeks ago by Austrian authorities and then two weeks ago by the Czech Republic's State Office for Nuclear Safety. Today the International Atomic Energy Agency released a statement revealing similar detections had been made "in other locations across Europe."

<snip>

The IAEA said it does not believe the radiation was left over from the nuclear disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant in March and the Czech Republic's State Office for Nuclear Safety said it was unlikely to have been caused by an incident at any nuclear plant's core. A meltdown there, the Czech agency said, would have released several other radioactive isotopes in addition to iodine-131.

The IAEA has been unable to determine from which country the radiation is emanating, and both Czech and Austrian officials said it was unlikely their countries were the source. Austrian officials said in a statement that a study of the dispersal cloud indicated the radiation is most likely coming from somewhere in southeastern Europe.

8. BBC report:

0850
Iranian authorities have advised the one and a half million people who live in Isfahan to leave the city if they can because pollution has now reached emergency levels. The same thing happened in the capital Tehran earlier this week. Kasra Naji works for the BBC's Persian TV service in London.

/end

Now, does that make it a nuclear leak? No. But why ask 1.5 million people to evacuate due to pollution, when that would only create more pollution?

Maybe I'm being skeptical in the American fashion, but that is illogical.

30. "Obama wants to hand over SS to the Republicans"? Really?

Could you provide a link, I would love to see that thread. I did see the transcript and video where President Obama admits putting chained CPI on the table, but your claim is a new one to me. I look forward to the link.

14. I found this: "Iranian cities evacuated by smog alert"....

Iranian authorities on Jan. 2 advised the 1.5 million residents of Isfahan to leave the city if they can because air pollution has reached emergency levels. (BBC Radio, Jan. 2) Tehran's Air Quality Control Company also warned Jan. 2 that air pollution in the capital has also reached alarming levels, and ordered elementary schools and daycare centers closed in the city due to heavy smog. (Mehr News Agency, Jan. 1) Early last month, Tehran residents were likewise urged by authorities to lave the city in response to "dangerous" smog levels, blamed on nearly incessant bumper-to-bumper traffic. Similar edicts were issued for Isfahan and Arak. Schools were also ordered closed, and a cabinet meeting in the capital cancelled. Hospital admissions during the smog alert jumped by 15%, primarily due to people suffering headaches, respiratory problems and nausea. (AAP, Dec. 6; IBT, Dec. 5; AFP, Dec. 3)

The Isfahan evacuation advisory sparked speculation that the move was really ordered due to a mishap at the city's Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF). Last month, Iranian authorities denied foreign media reports about claims of a radiation leak at the UCF. "The rumors about leaking and contamination at Isfahan's UCF are not true at all; some western media are just seeking to create tumult in the society through such moves," said provincial deputy governor-general for security affairs Mohammad Mehdi Esmayeeli. (Free Beacon, Jan. 2; Fars News Agency, Dec. 9)

18. There is no large nuclear reactor in Isfahan that might cause such a leak or a need to evaculate

a city.

Yellow cake, itself, isn't dangerously radioactive and is not highly toxic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowcake The plant in Isfahan processes yellow cake into uranium dioxide powder, which doesn't require special handling. The next step in the fuel cycle is to convert the powder into uranium hexafluoride gas (UH6), and then spin it in centrifuges, a process which isn't particularly toxic and doesn't emit large amounts of radiation. Refined UH6 gas stored in large quantities is toxic at close distances in the event that a container is ruptured, and there have been industrial accidents in the US in which large quantities were released. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_hexafluoride

22. High sulfur gas, crappy vehicles, clay brick manufacturing are the cause of years of bad air.

28. RU a lapdog for the extreme right-wing nutjobs?

Really, posting Free Beacon Propaganda rag crap on DU? Reallly?

"The Washington Free Beacon, a project of the 501(c)4 Center for American Freedom, is a nonprofit online newspaper that began publication on February 7, 2012. Dedicated to uncovering the stories that the professional left hopes will never see the light of day,...
http://freebeacon.com/about/"